As the TV news crews pack up their vans and the pundits move on to the next headline-grabbing trial, Michael Jackson's supporters and detractors are asking the same question: What does the future hold for the world's weirdest pop star?

Pop star Michael Jackson blows a kiss to his fans after being acquitted of all 10 counts of child molestation charges, Monday.

By Haraz Ghanbari, AP

Predictably, legal experts, media and music industry insiders and those close to Jackson offer different perspectives on whether and how the self-styled King of Pop can recover from his latest and most daunting debacle.

Even before he showed up in court, Jackson had been plagued by waning album sales and a growing perception that his eccentricities overshadowed his musical gifts.

Still, the 46-year-old singer has a long history of personal and professional resilience, not to mention a track record that makes him appealing to record labels and several radio formats.

And, of course, there is Jackson's ultra-loyal fan base (which is especially sizable outside the USA), some of whose members were cheering and waving outside the courthouse in Santa Maria, Calif., after Monday's verdict. (Related story: Jackson fans celebrate)

"These fans are very, very loyal," says Michael Sands, a media image consultant who worked with longtime Jackson family attorney Brian Oxman. "A lot of them grew up with him and think he can do no wrong."

Even so, the faithful are divided as to Jackson's next career move. Some urge him to explain his curious behavior. Others say he should focus on his career. One even urges him to move to Las Vegas and capitalize on his fame — or notoriety — by mounting a nightclub act.

Antonio "L.A." Reid, veteran producer and chairman of the Island Def Jam Music Group, would like to see Jackson back in the recording studio.

"Under the right circumstances," Reid says, "I would absolutely sign Michael," who is believed to have completed or be nearing completion of his current contract. (A spokesman for Sony BMG, which still holds rights to Jackson's catalog, says the company doesn't comment on contractual matters.)

"There were serious charges in this trial, and I don't pass judgment on Michael or the prosecution," Reid says. "But I believe in Michael's creativity. I was just listening to him sing Butterflies (a track on Invincible) the other day, and I got chills. Who else sings like that? I will always be a fan."

Sean Ross, vice president of music and programming at Edison Media Research, observes that "R&B radio has continued to play Michael Jackson throughout the trial, even encouraging listeners to turn out at the courthouse to support him. R&B program directors have said that they considered him innocent until found guilty."

Adds Oxman, formerly a member of Jackson's defense team: "Michael is an extraordinarily resilient human being. He has been through storms of monumental proportions since he was 8 years old and seen his way through them all."

The obstacles ahead

Still, the accumulated effect of decades of high-profile odd behavior could be tough to overcome.

Thomas Mesereau Jr. told NBC's Today that Jackson will no longer share his bed with young boys.

''He's not going to do that anymore,'' Mesereau said.'' ''He's not going to make himself vunerable to this anymore.''

Mesereau also said the singer was still recovering from the ordeal. "He's going to take it one day at a time. It's been a terrible, terrible process for him," he said Tuesday.

Fans too young to remember the Jackson 5 or Thriller have grown more familiar with the star as a media circus attraction — someone who dangles babies, bonds with chimps, sleeps in a hyperbaric chamber and — if you believe widespread media accounts — has had more cosmetic surgery than half the female population of Beverly Hills.

And there had been earlier allegations of sexual improprieties, of course, notably in 1993, when he paid a reported $20 million settlement to the family of another boy who had charged the singer with child molestation.

"His image as a freak unhealthily obsessed with children is a permanent one," says Jeffrey Toobin, legal analyst for CNN and a writer for The New Yorker. "There's nothing he can do to get rid of that."

Dan Abrams, who covers legal questions as host of MSNBC's The Abrams Report, points out that Jackson's own lawyers emphasized some of his more bizarre characteristics.

"Their defense was that he's this really weird, wacky guy, so try to put yourself in his head. They didn't challenge the fact that he slept with boys again and again, that he thought of himself as Peter Pan."

But could the very public spectacle presented by Jackson's ordeal these past few months have been one freak show too many?

For weeks on end, TV viewers have been greeted with images of a frail-looking Jackson walking in and out of court surrounded by bodyguards and hangers-on, and they have been regaled with leaked accounts of underage visitors to the singer's Neverland ranch being plied with alcohol and pornography.

Also, Jackson — who is still under a gag order after the 1993 settlement and was barred during the trial by Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville from discussing elements of the current case — has made no discernible attempt to explain or justify his activities.

'Certain detachment from reality'

"If he were to say, 'Look, I know that things I've done may look weird, but there was nothing sexual or criminal going on,' that would be one thing," says Anthony DeCurtis, veteran music journalist and author of In Other Words: Artists Talk About Life and Work. "But he has shown no ability to do that. That shows a certain detachment from reality that, independent of his guilt or innocence, people have a hard time with."

Entertainment lawyer and corporate trainer Courtney Anderson says denial has been a longstanding problem for the star.

"When his last album didn't do well, he accused his label and (former Sony Music chief) Tommy Mottola of racism," Anderson says. "Well before this situation, his career was in steep, steep decline.

"But I think he still feels he's on top. He's so far removed from reality that he wouldn't listen to the best advice he could get about how to handle things."

Even those sympathetic to Jackson question how the singer has handled his creative and business affairs.

"Michael's biggest problem is that he hasn't been performing," Sands says. "If I were his consultant, I would have had him working all along, through all of this. Even if it was just him sitting down and singing to his fans in small venues, he would have had a profit center."

Landing a new record deal could be a trickier matter. Insiders aren't blind to how Jackson's album sales have dwindled through the years, from 1982 album Thriller's 26 million to 2.1 million for 2001's Invincible and 900,000 for 2003's Number Ones hits collection.

Then there's the question of Jackson's productivity, which has seemed limited even in comparison with other superstars who often take years between studio projects.

"Most of what he has released lately has been some form of repackaging of previously released material," says Geoff Mayfield, director of charts at Billboard. "Part of the challenge will be to deliver more."

Managing his own expectations

A potentially bigger hurdle, Mayfield says, "will be to manage his own expectations of what he's worth in the marketplace. He might have to do what baseball players do after they're injured sometimes, which is to entertain signing a modest contract with a lot of incentive clauses. If he goes in expecting the kind of deal he negotiated the last time with Sony, he's going to have a tough time."

On the other hand, some maintain that the trial might have actually confirmed the dedication of Jackson's most devoted fans.

"I went into this trial thinking that Michael Jackson was a largely forgotten, irrelevant public figure," Toobin concedes. "But I soon learned that there's still a huge amount of interest in him — some in the United States, but especially abroad. It was shocking to me how many people came from outside the country to give him support. And I've never had as much interest from CNN International as I did here."

Rebuild in Las Vegas?

That said, a little image reconstruction probably wouldn't hurt. On a recent episode of Abrams' program, Jesse Jackson told the host that Jackson wanted to open a theme park for children in Africa.

Songwriter/producer Desmond Child, a prolific hitmaker whose credits range from Cher to American Idol, agrees but adds: "He should rebuild it in Las Vegas, where he could perform a live show that would rival all live shows. His compound could be adjacent to a casino partner. All of his construction costs would be covered, and with all of his resources, he could then oversee his foundation to help all the hungry and desperate children of the world."

Most who see a glimmer of hope for Jackson's future prosperity, and his legacy, ultimately advise that he remind the public how they came to know him and care about his foibles in the first place.

"The best thing he could conceivably do is go out on tour and perform the music that made him great," says Joe Levy, deputy managing editor of Rolling Stone. "He shouldn't speak out in exclusive interviews to Geraldo Rivera, or anyone else — that's only going to make the crisis go on longer. And as he has proven so many times before, he doesn't do himself any good when he tries to speak directly to the public. But the hits are still beloved."

Child even suggests that Jackson get back in the studio with the man who helped make Thriller and Off the Wall timeless classics.

"He should work with Quincy Jones as his executive producer to create Thriller II. This is one of the greatest franchises in the entertainment business.

"The top songwriters, producers, film and video directors should be brought together as a team with digital animators, and they should make a front-to-back motion picture/DVD, which would then sell as the ultimate entertainment package of all time, with the soundtrack, videos, games and making-of-the-documentary (feature).

"If Quincy is not available," Child hastens to add, "I humbly submit my name for consideration."